Knife + Heart

Yann Gonzalez’s movie is a combination of early Dario Argento and Brian De Palma—a lurid French period giallo set in the sweltering Parisian summer of 1979 that centers on a director of gay soft-porn movies whose cast members are being gruesomely killed off by a creepy masked figure. Vanessa Paradis plays Anne, the lesbian filmmaker whose repertory company of handsome studs suddenly become targets—the first a curly-haired Adonis whose murder (by dildo—tricked out with a switchblade) is intercut with clips from the last scene he filmed being edited into final form by Anne’s estranged lover. While the killings continue—in similarly outrageous fashion—Anne tries to uncover the identity and motive of the perpetrator, eventually setting a trap to lure the murderer into the open by making another film. Knife + Heart ultimately provides answers, but as in many similar genre pieces the explanations are outlandish. Nonetheless, the film is so stylishly mounted (on an obviously meager budget) that it holds one’s interest despite gaping plot holes. Knife + Heart cannot match the wacky seductiveness of Argento or De Palma at their best, but it works as a homage to their most memorable work. A strong optional purchase. (F. Swietek)